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Discussion on the Trump administration's policy agenda and its impact on the rule of law with testimony from former Justice Department attorneys. | |
| That's live at 3.30 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3. | ||
| Also on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Nearly 3,500 students across 42 states and D.C. participated in this year's C-SPAN Student Cam Documentary Competition. | ||
| This year, we asked students to create short videos with messages to the president exploring issues important to them or their communities. | ||
| All this month, we're featuring our top 21 winning entries. | ||
| One of this year's second-place high school central winners is a 12th grader from Homestead High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where C-SPAN is available through Comcast. | ||
| Their winning documentary is titled Kids First, Indiana's Child Welfare System. | ||
| irony of the child welfare system is from my perspective, it was not child centered. | ||
| Every two minutes, someone calls the Indiana Child Abuse Hotline. | ||
| 90% of reports end after an assessment, but for the 10% that continue on. | ||
| There's been multiple times where if we had not pulled kids out of a situation, they would be dead. | ||
| Child protective services is important to protect kids from danger, but some kids remain in unsafe situations, including four-year-old Judah Morgan. | ||
| He was removed from his parents for numerous reasons. | ||
| And for some reason that nobody has ever been able to explain, it was abruptly decided after four years that they were going to reunify him. | ||
| He was reunified and unfortunately, shortly after that, was killed in an absolutely horrific fashion by his biological parents. | ||
| Even though most cases aren't as extreme, living in situations without stability can still harm kids' emotional well-being. | ||
| So all of the foster homes until the age of eight, I lived in seven different homes in the foster system in Los Angeles. | ||
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My daughter, in particular, who really suffered in our child welfare system and it was very needless, she had seven years total of child welfare experience when this was all said and done. | |
| Kids should not stay in the foster care system that long. | ||
| Putting kids first means getting them to permanency quickly, whether that's reunification, adoption, or guardianship. | ||
| That's what's best for these kids, is to get back with their parents, to get back to a safe environment where, you know, DCS will never have to be involved again. | ||
| Over in the state capitol, legislators work on House Bill 1369 to achieve this goal. | ||
| Things were too vague, too open to interpretation, so we didn't have parental rights terminated and we didn't have permanency happening in a timely manner. | ||
| House Bill 1369 hoped to solve this by giving specific examples of reasons to terminate parental rights. | ||
| When the state intervenes, the best interest of the child's safety is the number one concern. | ||
| This bill was not a solitary effort. | ||
| And at the same time I was working with the executive branch, Department of Child Services, I also reached out to the judicial branch. | ||
| While many improvements have been made, there is still much work to be done. | ||
| Each year, more than 100,000 children in the United States foster care system wait for permanent homes. | ||
| Bureaucratic red tape from Washington gets in the way of caseworkers caring for children. | ||
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Indiana is one of the few states in the country that does not have any sort of right to counsel for any group of children in foster care. | |
| Working for DCS was hard, but it was also so rewarding. | ||
| But what made me get to a point where I couldn't do it anymore was the management. | ||
| Making sure we have the right leaders in place is very important because that really sets the tone in the culture of our Department of Child Services. | ||
| Thankfully, Indiana Department of Child Services Director Eric Miller has consistently been open to working with others involved in the child welfare system. | ||
| As an agency, We desire to collaborate with policymakers. | ||
| We work together on the bill that I did last year. | ||
| We built good relationships. | ||
| It's been really refreshing to have people willing to collaborate with those of us on the ground. | ||
| We need the same collaboration across the board if we want to see improvements. | ||
| We need to hear from the youth. | ||
| The youth voice is very important. | ||
| From our public defenders, from the CASAs, from DCS and the courts. | ||
| I think when we all hear each other out and understand the issues from each other's perspective, that's how we get the best results. | ||
| Even beyond that, we need different parties to work together. | ||
| Bipartisanship has been a defining feature of federal child welfare legislation. | ||
| We need different branches of government to work together. | ||
| I had a bill draft. | ||
| I would send it to the judges and say, please share this with your members. | ||
| Please give me feedback. | ||
| We have an absolutely amazing legislature here in the state of Indiana. | ||
| I have had so much support and the willingness of the senators and House representatives to speak with us and our families and listen and actually act and do something. | ||
| Finally, we need different levels of government to work together. | ||
| Mr. President, you must prioritize child welfare programs and provide support to states with input from all perspectives. | ||
| Let's all be working together towards the same goal. | ||
| We all know we needed better permanency timelines. | ||
| We all know we need more safety. | ||
| With all of us working together, we can put kids first every single time. | ||
| Be sure to watch all of the winning entries on our website at studentcam.org. | ||
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| Democracy. | ||
| It isn't just an idea. | ||
| It's a process. | ||
| A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
| It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. | ||
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